


(Almost) Everybody Knows

by Bettybot (Lizbettywrites)



Series: The Ways They Said "I Love You" [2]
Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Other, Rare Pairings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2018-05-18
Packaged: 2018-10-19 01:46:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10629609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lizbettywrites/pseuds/Bettybot
Summary: An AU in which Riptide is posted at Delphi during the last few decades of the war.





	1. Without really meaning it

The arrival of a supply shuttle provided a welcome diversion from the snowy monotony of Messatine. Riptide volunteered for the collection crew before the craft had touched down. Stacking crates onto hovercarts was better than the odd jobs Pharma assigned, after all.

Besides, it was an important task. Supplies were precious at Delphi. Their shipments didn’t always make it through, and the mechs posted there knew better than to tamper with what arrived. The materials could have to last them anywhere from a month to a year. This knowledge didn’t stop the collection crew from mouthing off to each other as they oh-so-carefully handled the containers.

Some new transfers had accompanied the supplies to Delphi, and they assisted with unloading the cargo bay. Riptide was paired with a mech who introduced himself as Clunker and refused to speak further on the subject—or any subject, for that matter.

Riptide picked up his next crate and checked the label. “Hey, don’t the medics use this stuff for preserving organs? I didn’t think Pharma’s done this many transplants the whole time I’ve been here.” He set it on the cart and looked to Clunker, who ignored him, lifting another container. “I wonder what else… we… holy slag, who is that?”

Another passenger had started down the ramp with a crate held above his head. He stopped for a moment as the light reflected off of the snow and hit his face, and Riptide had to reset his optics.

Nope, still there, all strong lines and sharply sculpted angles and piercing yellow eyes. Riptide’s brain didn’t stand a chance against his big mouth.

“Hey, mech, have you been tested for the Signs of Affinity? ‘Cause you’ve got a prime chassis!” Almost immediately after the words left his mouth, Riptide dropped to hide behind the hovercart. “Oh slag oh slag oh slag.” That was the dumbest thing he’d ever said, and he’d said a lot of dumb things in his life.

Next to him, Clunker stacked another crate on the cart. He was actually smirking, the jerk!

“Figures it takes someone else’s making a fool of himself for you to crack a smile,” Riptide muttered.

“You fragged up real bad,” Clunker rumbled, optics brightening with sadistic glee. “That one’s the new ward manager. You’re gonna work with him.”

“Frag my life.”


	2. Over a beer bottle

Messatine wasn’t as bad as Ambulon had expected. To be fair, he had expected the Decepticon Justice Division to raze the whole facility to the ground within a week of his arrival. And maybe it was a little egotistical to think the DJD would do all that for one traitor, but when a mech was living in constant fear of dismemberment, everything felt much more personal.

Anyway, Delphi wasn’t bad at all. His new boss was brilliant, albeit also cold and a little screechy, and the rest of the staff didn’t seem to be out for his energon. Heck, he was fairly certain that he’d even made a friend: First Aid, who he had to admit was nicer than anyone in this war had cause to be.

So this place was all right. Ward managing? It had its moments. Ambulon wasn’t used to supervising other mechs, but he’d found that it suited him. He organized inventory, read and filed reports and sent relevant ones on to Pharma, made sure that patient care met the standards outlined in his copy of Autobot medical policy, and coordinated staff schedules. The whole arrangement was better than he would have ever hoped.

The small crew of mechs who handled odd jobs and guard duty, however, still eluded him with their odd behavior. By which he meant their odd behavior around him. They were civil enough to him, and they did as he said without much protest, but Ambulon couldn’t shake the feeling that they knew something he didn’t. Conversations hushed when he neared their little cluster in the mess area. A few of them kept winking at each other when they passed him in the hall, a particularly unsettling detail.

Maybe he just wasn’t used to some social habits. Maybe they had some kind of inside joke about him. No one but the medics knew his alt mode, right? Maybe he should question First Aid about patient confidentiality. Whatever it was, though, it didn’t seem to be affecting the guards’ work, so maybe he should just leave it be.

To the Pit with that.

On his next off shift, Ambulon holed himself up in a supply closet and accessed the files of the Autobots in question. There had to be something that united them, something that would indicate what they were thinking about him. Right?

Clunker. Cresset. Dent. Riptide. Understeer. Zev.

Of course there wasn’t anything to unite them. That was ridiculous. Why was he letting this go to his processor? They worked together. They were bound to have inside jokes. So what if one was about him?

Ambulon shut off his datapad and stood up, wincing at the stiffness in his joints. His shift would start soon, and he needed to get to the medical bay.

Around this time, most of the off-duty staff were either recharging or in the mess area, so he was surprised to hear loud voices coming from a barrack up ahead. Someone was telling a story to a very reactive audience. Ambulon slowed his pace and stopped in from of the open doorway.

“So then I said to this ‘Con, I said—” Riptide stopped short at the sight of him.

Four of the six guards sat in a circle just inside the room. Right. Clunker and Zev were on guard duty.

Dent lay sprawled across Cresset’s lap. He didn’t seem to notice Ambulon standing there as the others had, and he stretched an arm out to prod Riptide. “You said what? C’mon, Rip, don’t leave us hanging,” he huffed.

Understeer leaned over and smacked him upside the helm. “Shut it!” His other hand swept something out of sight from the center of the circle.

Too late. Ambulon knew why they had chosen the barrack for this little gathering.

He casually leaned against the door frame. “Having a drink, mechs?” At least, he hoped he looked casual. Inside, he was freaking out just a little. Pharma had clear regulations about what was and wasn’t allowed through the doors of Delphi. How had they gotten engex into the facility?

Cresset tossed an arm around Riptide, grinning. His visor flashed briefly, and the Hydrobot made a face in response before shoving him off. Cresset addressed Ambulon, unperturbed.

“Yessir—tell you the truth, ‘s not much highgrade in the mix, hard to find these days, you know. But it’s just a drink, see, ain’t we all in need of it lately…”

The mine, most likely. All right. He could handle this. He’d have to handle this unless he wanted Pharma to get wind of it.

Riptide reached behind Understeer and slid a half-empty bottle into view. That was a bold move, made bolder by holding it up toward the mech who was preparing to write every one of them up for possession of contraband.

“Would you—” his vocalizer skipped, and the others sniggered before he regained his bravado, “uh, care to join us?”

Ambulon hadn’t had engex in years. Not since one memorable occasion in his Decepticon days. How long had it been for these mechs since they’d had any sort of indulgence, so far from the regular supply routes? And now they wanted to share it?

Tch. Autobots.

He almost reached for the bottle, but a ping to his comm interrupted him. Pharma was no doubt preparing to give him his first lecture on punctuality. Or perhaps he’d misfiled something as “rust” rather than “oxidation.”

Ambulon stepped back into the hallway and offered a small smile to the guard still proffering the engex. “Close the door next time, Riptide.”

No, Messatine wasn’t so bad after all.


	3. The storm raging outside

Riptide was royally slagged. It was hard enough to act normal just working with Ambulon, and then seeing him smile? Primus. Now he knew what that looked like, there was no escape.

He’d started watching the ward manager more closely than before. He saw the way Ambulon’s perpetually sour expression softened around First Aid, the way he would only accept help with a lot of wheedling and the way he focused completely on the task at hand when an extra medic was needed in emergencies. He heard the sharp edges to his voice on certain words, words like “test” and “function,” like he was biting each syllable and finding it bitter to his chemical receptors, and he heard the surprised note in every laugh, like Ambulon hadn’t realized he could laugh at all.

Riptide discovered that the more he learned about his supervisor, the harder he fell for him. The rest of his crew teased him mercilessly, but the mockery died down as they started to notice Ambulon’s interactions with First Aid change into something more intimate. It felt like the entire facility was holding their vents to see what course that relationship would take. Riptide didn’t take part in the betting. If Ambulon had a thing for cute, spunky doctors, there was no way he’d be interested in whatever it was that Riptide had to offer.

Then the word “amica” entered their medibay conversations, and he’d never felt so light. Maybe now was his chance, after all.

He found Ambulon spending his free shift in the observatory. A blizzard had swept up around the facility, and the ward manager sat by the window, staring outside. A datapad lay abandoned by his side. The way his face caught the dim lighting stalled Riptide’s engine. Whoops. Ambulon turned his head and nodded in greeting.

“Hey,” Riptide said weakly. “You, uh, come here often?”

“On occasion.” Ambulon directed his gaze outside again. “The view is pretty good.”

“It’s better on the roof!” he exclaimed, somewhat startled by his own boldness. “When it’s not storming so hard, I mean. I—I could show you sometime!”

Sharp yellow eyes went round for a moment. “Are you—no, never mind. That… sounds nice.”

“Great!” He paused. “Am I what?”

Ambulon shook his head. “Nothing. I—it’s been a weird few months. For a second there, I thought you might be...”

“Asking you out?” Riptide offered helpfully. “Because, uh… yeah, I am. Trying to, anyway.”

He barked that surprised-pleased laugh, and Riptide bit his lip to keep from grinning at the sound.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say yes! It’s totally okay if you don’t want to—I just thought I should put it out there, ‘cause I…” He trailed off and had to gather his courage again. “I, uh, I like you. I have for a while, but I wasn’t sure how you’d react if I said so… and then the whole thing with Aid, and I didn’t want to get in the way of that if it was, you know, but now—”

“Primus, this explains so much,” Ambulon muttered, but he was smiling by now. “You can sit down, you know. I don’t have exclusive rights to the floor.”

Riptide laughed at that. He eased himself down next to the ward manager. “So, like, I know it’s really sudden for you, but—”

Ambulon set a hand on his shoulder. “I think I’d like that,” he said.

“Really?”

“This base keeps surprising me. I see no reason to interrupt the pattern.” His smile widened. “Besides, you’re awfully cute—for an Autobot.”

Riptide had no response prepared for that. “You are literally the most gorgeous mech I’ve ever seen,” he blurted.

Nope. No going back from this conversation. Time to wave goodbye to his burning bridges.

At least the view was incredible.


	4. On a sunny Tuesday afternoon

As far as Riptide was concerned, their relationship was going well. At least, that was the impression Ambulon got. The Hydrobot never failed to light up when their paths crossed, beaming a grin full of modded dentae straight at him.

The key word there was "when." With curious eyes all around and Pharma venting down his neck, Ambulon had little free time in which he could meet his—partner?—for any sort of date-like activity. He hadn't been to the observatory alone or accompanied in a week, and as that was the one part of Delphi that was usually unoccupied... well, it was getting to him.

So it was nice to have Riptide assigned to him for a patient retrieval today. Once the afflicted mech had been stabilized and loaded onto a mobile repair bay, they began the trip out of the mine and towards Delphi.

The sunlight reflected off of the snow was blinding. Ambulon began to grumble something about it, but he was interrupted—by a snowball to the face.

He spat the melting liquid out and turned a glare onto his attacker. "What. The Pit."

Riptide looped an arm around his shoulder with a laugh that he'd gotten quite fond of in the past weeks. "Seemed like you could use an excuse to loosen up."

"We're on retrieval duty, not vacation," Ambulon huffed. He ducked out from under Riptide's arm and took hold of the cart again. Before continuing to push it, he let out a long vent. "We'll find time to relax. Eventually."

Riptide gave him an assessing look. "Isn't now that time? Who knows when we'll get venting room again?" The pleading tone of his voice was new as he took over pushing the cart and held out a hand. "Can't we enjoy it?"

Oh, those bright and hopeful eyes. Ambulon melted. He accepted his partner's proffered hand.

He held it tightly all the way to the doors of Delphi.


	5. Too quick, mumbled

Riptide would be the first to admit he wasn’t ready for today’s date to end.

They had finally been able to meet up on coinciding off-shifts which his now-favorite coworker may or may not have had a hand in scheduling. What a pal Zev was.

In clear weather, the rooftop landing pad was a great place for their dates, especially on the rare days that Pharma took a shift's workload entirely upon himself. It was even above freezing in the sheltered spot they occupied, thanks to an old solar-powered heating unit that Riptide had fixed and lugged up to the roof.

These were the dates Ambulon seemed to like best. He had relaxed into Riptide's side as naturally as he skirted around him in the hallway during their duty hours. His face was slack and his eyes thoughtful as he stared out over the white expanse before them, where it stretched into mountains that punctured the lowest purple clouds on the horizon. In the silence, Riptide wrapped his arms more tightly around his partner. The motion brought Ambulon's attention back in. Contemplative yellow eyes focused on his face.

"You were a million miles away, huh?" Riptide murmured, hesitant to disturb the moment.

Ambulon just smiled and snuggled into Riptide's chestplate. "I'm exactly where I want to be. But the landscape is nice, too."

"Yeah... How was your last shift? I didn't see you."

"Mmm."

"That bad?"

"Mmmmmmm."

"What happened?"

"Nothing, really, just Pharma being his usual charming self."

Riptide huffed. "Somebody oughta take him down a peg. What if I—"

"No."

"But Ambs—"

"Stay off his radar. I've got enough stacked against me as it is." As harsh as Ambulon's words were, his position glued to Riptide's frame told a different story. Riptide took a chance.

"Why can't he know we're doing this? I'm not your patient, and we're not in the same chain of command. There're no rules against it."

"Riptide..."

"He knows about you and Aid being Amica, too." Was he whining? He hoped not. Riptide bit his lip and tried to reel in his frustration. "I just... It's okay if you don't want people to know, but this is Delphi. They'll figure it out."

Ambulon made a derisive noise against his plating. "Like Pit. Fraggin' rumor mill."

"Hey," Riptide joked, "that rumor mill's my team."

"No slag. Even First Aid doesn't know, but those morons do." He huffed. Riptide had to dial up his audials to catch his next words.

"What do you mean, 'they could ruin everything'?"

Another huff. "Look, this—this thing—is different from the thing with Aid, or what have you. It's different."

Riptide felt bad for getting him worked up. He hadn't meant to push, but now he was curious. "Ambs?"

"What?"

"Are you embarrassed?"

"What?"

"Of... you and me."

"No!" Ambulon's firm defense was comforting even though he backtracked. "Not like that. I just... I'm not ready." He hesitated. "Rip, I don't get to keep what I love. It's just not how life goes. But—" He pulled himself up and took hold of Riptide's helm. "—I could never be embarrassed of you."

"Good." Riptide kissed the bridge of his nose. "Because someday—when you're ready—I'm gonna show you off to the whole world."

He was pretty sure from the look on Ambulon’s face as their chronometers pinged that the ward manager wasn’t ready for the date to end either. At least the halls were quiet right now; no one to see their hands clasped between them as they walked.

"Sure you don’t want help with inventory?” he asked yet again as they neared their destination.

Ambulon shook his head. “It’s a one-mech task. They’ll be wanting you in security with Cresset out of commission.” The storeroom doors slid open.

Riptide squeezed his hand. “Love you.”

His partner whipped around, gaze roving over the corridor and the storeroom interior. Empty.

“You too,” he mumbled, stealing a quick kiss just as First Aid rounded the corner.

Riptide shot the nurse a grin and saluted. “Catch you later!” Yep. Life was good.


	6. Loud, so everyone can hear

The Delphi staff was out in full force today. The previous night’s blizzard had almost entirely concealed the facility in a massive bank of sparkling white. Everyone from the medibay to the mine was drafted into excavating it from the drift. Even Pharma worked alongside a crew on the landing pad above where Ambulon dug with Riptide’s unit. There were plenty of shovels to go around on Messatine.

Every time Riptide passed him, Ambulon could feel his EM field straining to break free. Boat kibble wiggled excitedly, signaling the Hydrobot’s desire to play in the snow. For a mech built for the open water, he was always looking for a chance to use his runners to slide down hills or start a snowball fight. He was too precious. Ambulon stopped trying to hide his smile the next time their paths crossed, and the joy that brightened Riptide’s optics set his spark to fluttering.

If only there weren't so many people out. If it was just the guard unit and First Aid, slag, even the mining crews… but with Pharma overseeing everything, he didn't dare. Even if Riptide started something. Then again, Ambulon knew he wouldn't.

Despite his obvious longing, Riptide never reached for Ambulon in public. Never addressed him inappropriately on duty—well, not since the first time—never pushed him, never pressured him, only initiated when they were alone or among friends, and always reacted with pure delight and gratitude when Ambulon gave him his attention.

He was intuitive, protective, so sweet and clumsily charming. And frag it all, Ambulon wanted to love him in the open. He deserved it. He deserved so much better than being hidden away like some dirty secret.

Ambulon stuck his shovel upright in the snowbank at his feet and knelt down. He scooped a handful of snow into a little heap between his hands, pressed it, rolled it around a little. Then he stood up, wound back, and let the snowball fly. It hit Riptide in the back of his head.

“Oi, you!” Ambulon called.

Dead silence swept through the surrounding mechs. Riptide stared at him, wide-eyed and open-mouthed, as Ambulon strode up to him.

“Yes, you.” He grabbed blue collar plating and yanked Riptide down so their optics were level, faces brushing. “I fragging adore you,” Ambulon declared before crashing their mouths together.

Someone whistled. Conversation erupted around them once more. Riptide’s fingers tangled with those of Ambulon’s free hand, moving with purpose if a little stilted. _“Why now?”_

Ambulon pressed his forehead to Riptide’s as they moved apart. “Because it's about time.” Fuel pump pounding with the exhilaration, he kissed his partner again, this time softer. “And I'm too gorram proud of you to keep it to myself.”


End file.
